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Aug 11

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Be the Balloon

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Small gestures.
Tiny steps.
Little by little.
Stacking.
Momentum.
Building.
Creating.
Multiplying.
Nurturing.
Blooming.
Day by day.
Choose your attitude, approach, perspective.
Every single day.
Complain and remain.
Praise and be raised.
It all adds up or diminishes.
Our thoughts that lead to inaction or action.
Stagnation or growth.
Choose action, trying, participating, gratitude, generosity, kindness, grace, love.
Sideliners, armchair quarterbacks, critics, spectators, cynics, balloon poppers a plenty.
Be the balloon, not the pin.
Colorful, bold, life-giving, joyful, kind, and irritatingly delightful.
It spills into the world and always washes back over the giver.
Be the balloon.

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” – Proverbs 17:22

Aug 10

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Mind Expanded, Heart Full, Spirit Light

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”― Franz Kafka

“At any given moment you have the power to say: this is not how the story is going to end.” – Christine Mason Miller

To ask questions
Actually waiting and allowing for answers, different than our own
To enter conversation
Actually listening to understand, not merely reply, to say our side
To take a new path without certainty or a map
Actually trusting the unfolding, the compass of heart and soul
To change your mind
Actually to learn, unlearn, relearn, grow
To stay young
Actually separate from age, refreshed and awakened by beauty and awe
Mind expanded, heart full, spirit light
Make your path.

“Paths are made by walking”― Franz Kafka

Aug 9

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Wearing the Woods

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

A few minutes off leash in the woods.
Up and down and all around.
Romping up the side of the hill, over branches, through bushes.
Big smile inside and out.
A fresh coat of the woods to brush out.
Worth it.
Put on your big boots, go off leash, do some crazy good things.
Get off trail today.

“She would know a good thing to do without thinking about it.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Aug 8

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Duties of the Present

“The duties of each moment are the shadows beneath which hides the divine operation.”― Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

“When you show people a picture of a circle with a small wedge cut out of it, their eyes first go to the missing piece every time. There is so much more to who we were and who we are than just the missing piece.”― Steve Leder, The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift

Beneath the surface.
Above the clouds.
Wide and broad.
Deep and thick.
More than we know.
Beauty without and within.
To witness and partake.
The duties of the present moment.

“The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires.” – Rumi

Aug 7

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Doorway to Thanks

“Listen to silence. It has so much to say.” – Rumi

Prayer by Mary Oliver

“It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”

May the beauty, life and vibrancy of summer prompt pause, praise, delight.
May the details of nature, a flower, creation prompt gratitude, joy, wonder.
May we get fresh eyes and awakened senses each day to see it all with reverence and awe.
Doorway to thanks, threshold to joy, cross over.

“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.” – Wayne Dyer

Aug 6

To the Kite Flyers

‘’The only question in life is whether or not you are going to answer a hearty ‘YES!’ to your adventure.’’ – Joseph Campbell

“Adventure isn’t hanging off a rope on the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life” – John Amat

To the kite flyers
The hopscotchers
The jump ropers
The cannon ballers
The silly hearted
The yes’ers
The why not’ers
The gigglers
The butterfly chasers
The drummers
The dancers
The potters
The gardeners
The tryers
The dreamers
The doers of dream making
They show us that participating is better than spectating
That trying and failing then getting back up is better than never trying at all
That joy is a superpower
That optimism while still knowing the odds is brilliant
Join the club
Try something new today
See the world anew
Your adventure awaits.

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want, on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”– Randy Komisar

Aug 5

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Filled, Emptied, Filled Again

“It is, of course, we who house poems as much as their words, and we ourselves must be the locus of poetry’s depth of newness. Still, the permeability seems to travel both ways: a changed self will find new meanings in a good poem, but a good poem also changes the shape of the self. Having read it, we are not who we were the moment before…. Art lives in what it awakens in us… Through a good poem’s eyes we see the world liberated from what we would have it do. Existence does not guarantee us destination, nor trust, nor equity, nor one moment beyond this instant’s almost weightless duration. It is a triteness to say that the only thing to be counted upon is that what you count on will not be what comes. Utilitarian truths evaporate: we die. Poems allow us not only to bear the tally and toll of our transience, but to perceive, within their continually surprising abundance, a path through the grief of that insult into joy.”― Jane Hirshfield

Standing Deer

“As the house of a person
in age sometimes grows cluttered
with what is
too loved or too heavy to part with,
the heart may grow cluttered.
And still the house will be emptied,
and still the heart.

As the thoughts of a person
in age sometimes grow sparer,
like the great cleanness come into a room,
the soul may grow sparer;
one sparrow song carves it completely.
And still the room is full,
and still the heart.

Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken from us.
I have disappointed.
I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water.
Tenderness only breaks open the earth.
This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.”― Jane Hirshfield

Everything is still possible.
Write the prose of your life.
The poetry of presence.
Surprising abundance.
Spill into joy.

Aug 4

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Live Well, A Day at a Time

“Be where you are, not where you think you should be.” – Unknown

May you find joy today and each day.
Right where you are.
Not looking back in nostalgia, of remember when…
Not looking forward in perfect circumstances, of when this happens…
In today, living well, loving well.
This is it.
Change what you can and let the rest go.
Gratitude. Generosity. Kindness.
Dive in and find delight.

“An easy life isn’t an option; an easy yoke is.”― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Aug 3

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Unfolding Paths

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” – Rumi

“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.” – Rumi

Intuition.
Knowing.
Sensing.

Trust.
Observe.
Listen.

Enjoy.
Wonder.
Wander.

Still small voice.
Heed the call.
Step by step.

“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.” – Rumi

Aug 2

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Mindful, Life Full

“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” – Najwa Zebian

“You may be surprised to know that all of this ultimately comes down to one thing: your attention. If you’re feeling that you’re in a cognitive fog: depleted attention. If you’re feeling anxious, worried, or overwhelmed by your emotions: hijacked attention. If you can’t seem to focus so you can take action or dive into urgent work: fragmented attention. If you feel out of step and detached from others: disconnected attention.”― Amishi P. Jha, Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention in Just 12 Minutes a Day

May you know the power you possess.
To redirect, to change, to transform.
Rooted in your mind, your thoughts spilling into your actions and inactions.
Pay attention to what you are paying attention to.
In stillness, clarity.
In pause, renewal.
In rest, cup refilled.
Mindful rather than mind full.
Daily practice.
Full presence, grateful heart.

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” – Hermann Hesse

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